I saw this thing, The Javalin (sp?) on The Tech of... a few nights ago. If you don't know, it is a really teched up missile launcher. It uses heat seeking, with awesome accuracy and one soldier can shoot it on his own. Apparently it is capable of taking out a tank and only takes maybe 20 seconds or so to get a good shot. I know this is old by now, but I thought it was cool.

I hope that their riot control tools will improve soon. off-topic, those idiots that turn protests into riots are idiots. It would be awesome if there was a sound or something (like the ones that make you naseous (sp? again)) that makes you hellatired and fall asleep. Then they could go through and arrest people they know are violent.

With the recent advances in nano, and biotechnology you can bet your last dollar things are gonna change, militarily and civilian-tarily. Though I donít believe the 'look and feel' will alter all that much.

Case in point, to pardon the pun, computers get faster and components smaller, but Compaq, dell and Gateway only JUST started altering the footprint of their machine this past year. And the move to the Black/Gray color wasnít motivated by MACs "Blueberry" but because the beige turns yellow. People mostly hate (READ: fear) change, even if they understand the why's and how's.

They'll figure out how to mass-produce the silicone cube as a data storage device. (1 inch square silicon cube that can hold the contents of the New York Public Library. Lasers write in the volume of the cube not just the surface)

Engineering truism, you can plan for 10 years out, but only design for 5.

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Chrimera"Picked a bad time to quit sniffing glue"

All of you have been talking about how technology will improve in the hard sciences(i.e. man made machinery, etc.) but with the completion of the human genome project, i believe(and i cant predict the future, so i could be wrong) that the most significant advances will be in the bio-sciences. for example, i forsee medical practices switching over almost completely to gene therapy. why attack a disease when you can program the body with suitably manipulated retro-virus to be immune to that disease. i also think that nano-machines will be the next logical step. once we are able to categorically determine what genes do what, and of course, have the capability of buildign self-contained computer/machines 1/1 billionth of a centimeter wide(at the current rate of advancement, who knows.)it would be easy to insert a few million of those babies into every newborn child, and after that medicine becomes a thing of the past. when all disease and most minor injuries are self-curing, then physicians can concentrate on the important cases, and i think that we may see a huge difference in the number of premature deaths through disease. i mean,look at the advancement we've had in the past 200 years. we went from matchlocks to carbines to nuclear missiles in just 200 years, and technology increases exponentially. the bigger the infrastructute, the quicker it goes. i wouldnt be suprised if we had colonies on some of the closer stars before 2050. i also think that something akin to a global community will form. with increasingly cheap forms of communication, and transportation, it will be impossible to isolate anyone, anywhere.

When you said colonies on closer stars by 2050, that is something I don't think would happen. I do think it could happen, and soon, but i don't think it would be as soon as 2050. I think it would take that long just to prepare whatever we are gonna send out there. Obviously we wouldn't try to do this unless we had the ability to get there in a relatively short amount of time, but i think it would still take awhile to get to the point where we can. I think earliest we would have colonies on other stars would be 2150. Or somewhere.

Ten years from now! I believe it is behond most imagination. I believe the seeing faces and talking on computer will be the norm as. I laso think that wireless is going to be being than you think. You might even be able to talk to someones face on a palm pilot or cell phone for that matter. I you look where we came form ten years ago then double that and thats where we will be.